On July 17, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new version of the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. Changes to the Form I-9 instructions are fairly minimal and include:

The Department of Justice "Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices" is now called the "Immigrant and Employee Rights Section.”

The words “the end of” have been removed from the phrase “the first day of employment” in the description of the day on which the Form I-9 completion is required.

The USCIS also made the following revisions to List C of the List of Acceptable Documents:

The Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) was added.

The certifications of report of birth issued by the Department of State (Form FS-545, Form DS-1350 and Form FW-240) were combined into List C number 2.

All documents in List C were renumbered except for the Social Security Card.

Through September 17, employers may use the new form (rev. 07/17/17 N) or the prior form (rev. 11/14/16 N). The new form must be used beginning on September 18, 2017. There is no reason to wait to start using the new form, which can be downloaded from www.uscis.gov/i-9.

If you have any questions about the new I-9 form or your obligations under the employment verification laws, please contact the attorneys in ourEmployment & Labor Practice Group.